Symptoms

If you’ve been sexually assaulted
or abused
, you might feel some symptoms
of anxiety if you are reminded about the assault by a smell, sound or something happening. These are called triggers.

You might feel nervous or you might have an anxiety attack — also called a panic attack. Symptoms can include:

Short, shallow breaths

An increase in your heart rate

Feeling light-headed

Having trouble hearing

Wanting to be sick

Just wanting to get away.

Dealing with anxiety

When you are anxious you can feel out of control. Worrying about it only makes it worse. One of the best ways to treat anxiety is to try to reduce the symptoms as soon as you start feeling them. It’s harder to stop a full anxiety attack than to deal with it at the first signs.

One of the simplest and best things to do is to slow down your body’s responses. Breathing exercises will slow down your heart rate and help you take deeper breaths. You will feel less light-headed and more in control.